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GOP-minority engagement lunch

Donald Trump and the Georgia GOP’s minority engagement

Yesterday morning at about 11 a.m., the Georgia Republican Party gathered for a “minority engagement lunch” with very few identifiable people of color in the room. Within hours, Donald Trump – the Republican Party’s presidential nominee and standard bearer – held a rally in California where he touted his support among black Americans by singling out “my African-American” in the crowd.

“Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him,” Trump said. “Are you the greatest?”

The crowd of Trump supporters were completely silent and probably unaware of how the rest of the nation would hear these comments.

This is the modern Republican Party. This is a real problem. But don’t look for changes any time soon.

Georgia’s Republican leaders have lined up to salute Donald Trump. Sen. David Perdue even goes so far as saying that other Republicans are wrong for calling on Trump to change or even act more presidential.

“It’s time to let Trump be Trump,” Sen. Perdue said this week just as Trump started attacking a Federal judge for his “Mexican heritage” and days before Trump really went all-Trump by telling a mostly white crowd, “Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him!”

Sen. Perdue, Sen. Johnny Isakson, Gov. Nathan Deal and the Republican Party should all issue statements condemning Trump’s racist comments about United States District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. They should condemn Trump’s casual reference to “my African-American,” as if the guy was somehow Trump’s property.

But they won’t. Sen. Perdue will be silent. Sen. Isakson will be silent. Gov. Deal will be silent. Every Republican state lawmaker will be silent, along with their party.

It’s a shame. But it’s true.

And it will remain true because the Georgia GOP barely pretends to listen to people of color or any minority groups. Don’t believe me? Just look at that picture of the party’s official “minority engagement lunch.”

 

 

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